Shooting in Kazakhstan Capital Ends with 5 Killed, 9 Injured

The spokesperson for the Almaty Department of Internal Affairs Saltanat Azimbek told reports all the facilities in Almaty where a terrorist attack occurred are operating normally, TASS reported.

"The situation in the city is stable, and there is no threat to the citizens’ lives. The situation is fully controlled by the law enforcement agencies. All facilities are operating normally," she said.

According to Azimbek, law enforcement officers who on Monday were put on a beefed-up security regime, now "are on duty as usual."

According to FNA, five people died and another nine were wounded in an armed attack at the Almaty Interior Ministry and National Security Committee departments, Kalmukhanbet Kasymov, Kazakhstan’s minister of internal affairs, told journalists.

"Three policemen, one border guard and one civilian died. A border guard put up resistance; disobeyed the assailants and was wounded," Kasymov, who arrived in Almaty on order from Kazakhstani President Nursultan Nazarbayev, said.

The red terror alert was declared in the city, security forces conducted an operation to arrest the persons involved in the crime.

The attacker was a 27-year-old man twice convicted for robbery with violence and illegal acquisition and possession of firearms.

He was born in the Kyzylorda region. According to the interior minister, nine people, including six policemen and the assailant himself, are in hospital. Police were questioning the attacker right in a hospital ward.

The attack on the Almaty district interior department and the National Security Committee department took place on Monday morning. Kazakhstani President Nursultan Nazarbayev classified the incident as a terror attack.